5 Ways to Change Your Diet to Start Losing Weight Today

Many diets require you to completely change the way you eat in order to lose weight. Sure it works for the short term, allowing you to lose weight quickly, but many people don't stick with those diets for the long haul, often gaining back the weight that they had lost. The real key to permanent weight loss is not to diet at all, but just to modify yourbehavior. Here are some steps that you can take today to begin to modify your eating habits so that you start losing weight.

1. Eat small meals throughout the day, eating every 2 ½ to 3 hours.

This keeps your blood sugar levels fairly constant throughout the day and reduces your hunger and temptation to eat bad foods. It is easier for your body to process food when you continually provide it with smaller quantities of food, rather than periodically processing large quantities of food. This also helps your metabolism, when your body knows that it's getting a continuous supply of food there's no need to store any extra.

2. Eat your first meal about 2 hours after you wake up.

The goal is to reduce the total number of calories that you consume during a day. If you start eating two hours later than normal, still eating small meals every 3 hours, you will end up consuming fewer calories by the end of the day. Don't skip breakfast however, your first meal should be no more than 2 hours after you awake and then continue to eat throughout the day. You don't want your body to starve.

3. Balance the amount of carbohydrates, protein, and fat that you consume at each meal.

Your meal should have approximately equal amounts of carbohydrates and protein, and the amount of fat should not exceed about 20% of your meal. Take a look at the mix of foods that you eat at each meal and adjust as required to achieve this balance. Usually a pure protein, like chicken, fish, eggs, along with some vegetables will provide a good mix.

4. Pick "Good" carbohydrates and fats in each of your meals.

Good carbohydrates are those which do not cause a spike in your blood sugar levels. Foods such as fresh vegetables and fruits such as berries are good sources of carbohydrates. Bad sources of carbohydrates, causing rapid increases in blood sugar levels, include potatoes, rice, and pasta. If you want to eat rice and pasta, choose the whole grain variety; else just stick to fresh vegetables and fruit. Bad fats are the saturated fats and Trans fats, such as those found in animal products, vegetable oil, and margarine. Good fats are the unsaturated fats such as olive oil and avocadoes.

5. Drink a glass of water every 2 hours.

It's important to keep hydrated so that your body functions at its optimal level. When your body is properly hydrated digestion and other bodily functions are more efficient. I know it's difficult to drink water throughout the day. Most of us would rather drink something more flavorful. So by all means add some flavor to your water. You can simply add a twist of lemon or orange and add some sweetness to it as well. The best sweetener is a natural sweetener without all of the side effects of artificial sweeteners. The Stevia herb provides this sweetness naturally and is found in many sweetener products. If you are in the heat are exercising heavily and need some electrolytes in your water, it would be good to add some sea salt as well.

6. Still eat the foods you love, just make sure you follow the above steps.

Take a meal that you would normally fix for your family and apply the above principles to it to make it healthy. One example would be something that I eat regularly, Red Beans and Rice. First I omit the rice; the rice just dilutes the flavor anyway. I also will sauté the vegetables in olive oil rather than any other fat. Additionally, when adding sausage, first I will use turkey rather than pork sausage and I will fry it down and rinse it off before adding to the beans, in order to minimize the fat count. These principles can be applied to any of your meals to make them healthier.

You can start with just one of these recommendations and see how it goes, or go ahead and try them all. The goal is to achieve a permanent change in your eating habits, have you still enjoy the foods that you love, just in a healthier way, and ultimately achieve a healthy lifestyle.